The Sky is Cold, Winter Comes

December 7–11 , Hunenberg, Switzerland
Seasonal Memoir #43

Image credit: author

Living in a valley has its benefits: warmer weather, lush greenery, and an odd feeling of safety with the mountains surrounding you (harking to our days in the cradle, perhaps?). I have come to learn that our geography also leads to dismal weather in the winter months: fog and drizzle, mud and ice. With all that Switzerland has to offer, life has a way of keeping you grounded. My New England mentality interprets this change of climate, and the daily trudging to school in the wet, as poetic justice. A very puritanical viewpoint, but helpful…

I was able to play tennis for the first time in nearly three months, filling in for somebody at the domed clay courts. While the tennis wasn’t pretty, I was no worse the wear the next day, which in itself, was a big victory. I look back at the state of my knee in late September and realize that I had a significant injury to it, caused by over-use and probably a specific trauma event. (Am I now at the stage of life where I start broadcasting all my ailments? Please accept my sincere apologies.) Thich Nhat Hanh, the venerable Vietnamese Buddhist monk in his 90s, uses a toothache as a parable. He says we don’t value the benefit of not having a toothache until we actually have one. For anybody who has had tooth trouble, you know how a sore tooth can overtake your time and attention, yet when the pain dissipates, we soon let go of the experience. We forget the blessing of not being in pain. So Mr. Hanh reminds us to take time each day to meditate on what is absent, as a way to appreciate the present. So this is what I’m doing now! :)

View from the author’s office

I’ve noticed that as my stress levels go down (levels which are cyclical, like all of us experience), I become more creative. Ideas flow, which I try to write down for later cultivation. I also notice that my capacity for leadership planning grows, which benefits from this infusion of creativity.

This week, I’ve been ruminating on how to make wellness CORE to the school experience (students, staff, and parents). As I continue to field-test ideas in Switzerland, I plan to launch a comprehensive approach to well-being when I arrive in India. It’s not “me’, of course, but rather a mobilization of the community toward a comprehensive approach to health, happiness, and achievement.

In thinking how to do this preparation and creation collaboratively with the ASB community, I’ve sketched a rough outline:

1. This winter, work with the leadership team (and a consultant) on a wellness framework. This framework might include such strands as policies, protocols, and procedures; education; coping strategies; curriculum; support and intervention.
2. This spring, crowd-source with the community ideas and strategies under each of the framework’s strands (e.g. introduction of positive psychology curriculum).
3. In August, launch the initiative as my first major leadership endeavor, and then communicate, monitor, intervene, and innovate, among other tasks. We’ll cultivate data (what gets measured, gets managed), offer cycles of design thinking, and support the heck out of the initiative.

At this stage of my career, this work might be my magnum opus, if I’m disciplined and persistent (not to mention lucky). It might even result in a book, which I’ve toyed with for years (but haven’t had the courage, the time, or felt worthy of being an author of something). I even created a book outline:

Introduction: the case for attending to well-being and mental health; the problem of school stress

Section 1: What schools can do

• Attention to mind: Mindfulness; Mental health supports
• Attention to body: Physical movement
• Attention to spirit: Purpose and meaning; Connection
• Structures: The schedule; Mental health support and intervention; Staffing; Tracking well being
• Curriculum: Threads of wellness (Positive psychology; Mindfulness); Homework; Competency-based assessments (moving away from grades); Relevant education

Section 2: What parents can do

• Attention to mind: Mental models & perspective
• Attention to body: Nutrition; Screen-time
• Attention to spirit: Connection (family)
• The home environment

Section 3: What students can do

• Attention to mind: Self-advocate; Mindfulness; Mental models
• Attention to body: Nutrition; Sleep; Movement
• Attention to spirit: What calls to you?
• Choices…

Conclusion: What’s at stake

Lastly, I did further work on the mental health essay I shared in this forum two weeks ago, and I’m quite pleased with the result.